Golden Globes Turn Attention to Conan and Jay

In television, it was more than the nominated shows and actors that drew Golden Globes' attention Sunday.

NBC drew a measure of abuse on its own airtime for the continuing Jay Leno-Conan O'Brien public drama.

30 Rock creator Tina Fey told pre-show host Billy Bush the evening rain was "God crying for NBC." Tom Hanks joked that NBC had scheduled the rain for 10, but moved it back to 11:30. Host Ricky Gervais wrapped up his monologue: "Let's get on with it before NBC replaces me with Jay Leno."

And Julianna Margulies, who won for best actress in the freshman drama The Good Wife, pointedly referred to the Leno Show prime-time experiment by thanking CBS executives Les Moonves and Nina Tassler "for believing in the 10 o'clock drama." Margulies was a multiple nominee in the '90s for NBC's 10 p.m. hit ER.

She said afterward: "I got flustered" heading to accept, then met fellow ER alum George Clooney on the way. "I couldn't get up there, and then I saw a familiar face. It was very heartwarming for me."

For the third year in a row, AMC's Mad Men was the drama-series winner. Showtime's serial-killer drama Dexter took a twofer - Michael C. Hall, for best actor in a drama, and John Lithgow, for supporting actor as the Trinity Killer. Lithgow said he had a "wonderful time creeping out the entire country for the last six months."

Hall, who is battling cancer, accepted his award wearing a black cap he described later as Japanese. His illness, he said, is "a matter of personal health. I had every intention of keeping it quiet." But, he added, "it's nice to have a justifiable excuse for accessorizing."

The pay-cable channel took a third acting award: Toni Collette for her multiple-personality role in the comedy The United States of Tara. Recalling her first nomination for the movie Muriel's Wedding, she said, "This is a real pleasure. The first time I came, 15 years ago, I was on the loo and missed my whole category."

On the HBO side, Drew Barrymore, a first-time winner for HBO's Grey Gardens (which also won TV movie or miniseries), stammered through her speech. "I didn't know the etiquette of coming up here," she said, "(though) I've been meeting with the Hollywood foreign press for like 97 years, and I've been in this room since I was 7 years old. As I get older, I thank everyone in this room, because this is my family."